Miami Architect Chad Oppenheim’s New Book Celebrates His Ideas About Minimalism

Miami-based architect Chad Oppenheim has designed work around the world. Oppenheim’s new book portrays his work as minimalist to the extreme. A beach house looks out over a luscious minimalist ocean view to one side and a palm tree-blanketed opening to the other. Both are framed by the building’s aperture as boxes of green and blue.

It is a level of minimalist luxury that celebrates the place almost to the reduction of the building itself. Oppenheim’s works are like mirrors. They would disappear into the landscape if it were not for his use of long, straight lines that often makes the building stand out against it.

This lusciously produced book is not really a monograph of his work in the traditional sense. It is not comprehensive. It completely skips over the ‘white box frame’ buildings he’s done in Miami, where he is located, like Ten Museum Park. Instead, it is a selection of the work he likes to show off the most–whether built or unbuilt–and that encapsulates his ideas in the moment. is a documentation of his ideas about the minimalism of architecture, how he lets buildings recede to the background while the setting, or at least a particular version of the setting, like the beach or the setting sun, takes center stage.